The even finer print:

For the Gatherings themselves, there is never any monetary fee, there is never any soliciation of money donations, and no money donations are accepted if offered. So the way you contribute is to show up -- and contribute your own creativity, your own expression, your own time, your own energy, your own good will -- to combine with what others contribute, and make the best possible Gathering experience that we can co-create, and the best record for ecocreative posterity.

We were gifted all kinds of wonderful venues during the 80s, and then in the 1990s and 2000s finding venues that were compatible with our "free and open to all" philosophy got harder each year, especially in the US -- and so from the mid-2020s into the 2010s the time came to jump upon the vehicle that our community of graphics geeks had already been pushstarting for 3 decades: the web... and the embryonic stages of web video and web realtime communication.

Our 2012-2017 experiments set the stage for world wide gatherings that will be continuing in years to come, when we will be creating our own nest within the cloud, our own Gathering Place within the World Wide Web.

We started off crudely but amazingly with our 2012 worldwide videoconferencing experiment (that bridged 2 dozen audiovideo participants over 3 continents), and in 2013 and 2014 we experiemented with graphics-less global gatherings via pure audio-flavored cyberspace....... in 2015 and 2016 and 2017 came a little taste of what we are e-co-cooking-up for the future....

...in 2018-2019-2020 we stepped out of cyberspace and grounded it all at the very heart of North America -- El Paso....

and now in 2024 we build on our very successful 2021 worldwide online gathering; billed to last 12 hours, but actually going for 13 1/3 hours of spirited interaction -- and then our 2022 2-day worldwide online gathering; billed to last 12 hours *each day*, but actually going for 14 hours the first day and over 15 hours the second day comprising round after round of spirited interaction as people came and went from different timezones and complementary communities -- and then our 2023 Ylem Reunion Gathering also went over 15 hours and proved we have reached a stable and reliable plateau and no urgency to embark on our next climb to loftier technological platform.

We have in Google Meet a global platform, with both video and audio, affordable enough to support our FREE ethos, recordable (after 40 years of Gathering ground rules prohibiting or discouraging photos & vids, so people could feel free to be themselves, our culture has evolved to where video+audio recording is uninhibiting (and so yes by gathering you're giving permission for recording & later replaying & later ecocreative repurposing))... and hopefully rich and convivial enough to enable us to revive some of our good ole Graphics Gathering "show & tell" folkways.



No urgency to embark on our next climb to loftier technological platform... does NOT mean we aren't excited to keep climbing... So join us (and come up to speed) *before* we embark on our next climb up the evolutionary path of Graphical Gathering Places both OnLand and OnLine... that will support us ever more in bringing separate worlds together, in enjoying each others company, and in our creativity, cocreativity, and ecocreativity.

Bedrock for our home in the clouds in the years to come will be our dedication to working atop a platform of Open Standards (Internet (TCP/IP), Web (HTTP, HTML5), JavaEE, JavaScript) and Open Source (building on LGPL and Apache foundations, with our own interesting added twists).... Atop that, we'll do our next generation of pixel magic and humane interfaces ;)

And someday, we'll land it bigtime, creating a fresh physical OnLand GatheringPlace unlike any the world has known. We haven't forgotten our roots or our guiding star, and slowly but surely we're helping to steward the flow away from hardtimes and toward softspaces :)





(c)1980-2024 all rights reserved.

If you need to be in touch for any reason, and would like a reply, the email address to use is
gathering-2024-welcome AT glassroutes.org
... Shoot over an email to join our gentle, infrequent, respectful, private, and never-spammed emailing list. .... and welcome to the "creative chaos" :-)

The dynamics of our special blend of creative chaos often have included a mix of: "solid" speaker and media presentation sessions, "liquid" discussion and interactive and game sessions, and "gas" mixing and mingling sessions. But each year the pre-concocted solid-liquid-gas mix is different, so be ready for surprises... and for going with the flow that emerges naturally from the interesting mix of interesting people who show up.

We certainly want to empower those who "do good" to "do well"... just be appropriate, do not exploit the situation for selfish purposes, and please respect the non-commercial nature of the Gathering.

Sometimes we gather in-person, and when we do, Please respect the sensitivities of others who gather, and please do not bring any toxins or allergens to the space (no smoking, no aromatic chemicals, no pets, no non-human animals, no wool, no feathers, no plant material that could cause reactions in others, no art made with toxic or odorous materials, and when we have pot luck food times, please keep food free of animal products, gluten/wheat/corn, and other common allergens).

We ask that you participate as an individual rather than as a representative of some company or group or organization; and we hope you will participate as an active participant rather than as an observer.






Now you know more of what makes our synthesis unique, and perhaps have a hint as to the opportunities co-creating with us could mean for your own life and for your own purpose in improving the world. So as dawn breaks at the beginning of the next macrocycle,

consider this a fresh beginning to join together with your fellow creatives, cocreatives, and ecocre8ives

in